


Maybe One Day

by rhoen



Series: Tumblr Prompt Fills [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Canonical Character Death, Hurt No Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 17:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14337342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhoen/pseuds/rhoen
Summary: Neither of them have found the right moment to tell the other how they feel.





	Maybe One Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [shiranuigenma](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiranuigenma/gifts).



> katlynwtf requested this on tumblr a while ago. I like it. I want to put it up on AO3, so here it is!

 

Age has little to do with life or love as a shinobi, other than the lessons it can bring if you can survive the teaching of them. Those who can hold a blade quickly die by it, in the name honour, loyalty, or protecting those they love, and everyone learns to take comfort where it can be found, and to cherish every second.

Tobirama never took a lover, though. He never found comfort in another’s arms - he never thought he needed to. Things were supposed to change with the founding of the village. Peace and prosperity were supposed to flourish, and a new generation was suppose to grow up never knowing the horrors of war. It breaks his heart to see that, no matter how hard they’ve worked over the years, things haven’t changed. Perhaps this will be the end of it, he thinks. One last great conflict before all falls quiet.

And perhaps, if he lives through it, he’ll tell Kagami how he feels.

He glances over at the younger man as they prepare to move out, longing tugging with as much insistence as his desire to protect the village. He loves Konoha, and will do everything within his power to protect it, but there’s something quieter within himself, whispering a truth he can’t ignore. When all this is over, he wants to go home with Kagami. That, he thinks on a very deep, private level, is what happiness would look like to him: the village he loves safe and prosperous, and the man he’s come to love in the years he’s known him in his arms.

He’s not sure what Kagami will make of him and his confession. His status no doubt skews things, his aloof nature probably makes him an undesirable partner, and then there’s the fact that, unlike most people, he is attracted to men. He’s not sure if Kagami is the same. His advance could be spurned for so many reasons.

It’s something to worry about later, though, when the war is won.

With one final glance towards Kagami, they set off.

 

Kagami can’t help admiring Tobirama. Over the years he’s come to realise that Tobirama isn’t the cold and distant person everyone takes him for, and he hasn’t been able to help falling a little in love with with the beautiful, outwardly stoic man. He has no expectations whatsoever of anything happening between them, despite how much he’d like it to – Tobirama remains unmarried and unattached, and everyone is convinced he will remain that way – but there are moments in which Tobirama looks over at him and Kagami swears he can see longing in his gaze.

Right then is no exception. Later he knows he’ll swear it was his own wishful thinking, but in that moment, when Tobirama’s gaze alights on him, Kagami feels the strong tug and pull of mutual longing. He feels that, perhaps if he dares to reach out, maybe Tobirama will accept him, and all he wants, and wants to give.

He looks down when Tobirama turns away. Now is not the time, nor the place. They’re at war, and with a mission to undertake. Maybe one day soon, when the nations are at peace again, he’ll have time to learn what those subtle glances mean.

 

The chance never comes. The words Tobirama longs to say go unspoken, the things Kagami wishes to discover remain forever obscure to him. Age has everything to do with it when they’re surrounded and he announces that he will be the decoy. The dreams Tobirama harboured of returning home to a peaceful village, Kagami’s hand in his, shatter as he realises there’s no way out without sacrifice. There’s no question of him allowing one of his team to take his place.

 

The love Kagami feels chokes him and leaves his eyes stinging with the pain of all he’s enduring as he’s forced to part with Tobirama. His heart is breaking. He wants to say something, but the words won’t come. They’re at war. They don’t have a choice. A tiny, desperate flicker of hope stutters within him, reminding him that, if anyone can survive this, Tobirama can. Hope is the cruelest thing of all when they all know the truth.

 

Tobirama fights to the bitter end. He can feel the piece of Kagami’s heart he’d inadvertently torn away, and he’s determined to return it and help piece him back together. He won’t accept, until his final moment, that there really is no hope, no light left at all. Someone else has to carry his Will of Fire now, and someone else has to succeed where he failed and reach out to give Kagami the happiness and love he deserves, but he himself was to hesitant to give.

Perhaps, he thinks as the darkness closes in around him, in another life they can find each other, and Tobirama can try again.


End file.
